Two French drivers topped the speed charts in Friday's second practice for the Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach, the second race of the season in the Verizon IndyCar Series. Simon Pagenaud turned the fastest lap at 102.457 mph at the 1.97-mile, 11-turn course on the city's seaside streets. Three-time Long Beach winner Sebastien Bourdais was second with a speed of 102.440 mph. They were followed by rookie Jack Hawksworth, defending Long Beach winner Takuma Sato and two-time Long Beach winner Will Power.

No matter where he starts Sunday's race, veteran IndyCar driver Tony Kanaan believes he is sitting pretty. Kanaan, a fan favorite who won the Indianapolis 500 for the first time last year, was hired by the powerhouse team of Target Chip Ganassi Racing this year. The 39-year-old Brazilian took over the car formerly driven by his good friend Dario Franchitti, the four-time IndyCar champion who retired after being seriously hurt in a crash in Houston last October. Kanaan qualified second and finished sixth in the season opener March 30 on the streets of St. Petersburg, Fla., and Sunday's Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach will be his second race driving Ganassi's No. 10 car. Kanaan has never won Long Beach and his best finish in 10 starts was third in 2009.

The ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach are like the Coke and Pepsi of U.S. maritime transportation. They seem similar, they dominate the competition but they have a long history of less-than-friendly rivalry. Now, an independent commission's proposal to merge the neighboring harbors is being met with skepticism. The L.A. 2020 Commission, made up of prominent business, labor and civic leaders, on Wednesday unveiled a series of recommendations that included merging the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach.

The 40th running of the Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach is Sunday with one overarching question: Who can put the brakes on Will Power? The 33-year-old Australian has won the last three Verizon IndyCar Series races, and four of the last six, going back to last season. Power's latest victory in his No. 12 Team Penske car was a dominant one at IndyCar's season opener March 30 on the streets of St. Petersburg, Fla. Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach Course Map Power also knows his way around the seaside streets that make up the 11-turn, 1.97-mile Long Beach course.

Unless you're going to be driving an open-wheel race car, don't expect to be going very fast in downtown Long Beach this weekend. The city is welcoming the 40 th Grand Prix of Long Beach, a signature three-day event for the city that attracts more than 170,000 people a year to its scenic waterfront. The two-mile street course winds through palm-lined Shoreline Drive, swooping past landmarks like the Pike, the Long Beach Convention Center and the aquarium. Large portions of Shoreline Drive and side streets south of Ocean Boulevard between Chestnut Avenue and Shoreline Drive are closed through 5 p.m. Monday.

After years of eliminating jobs in Southern California, aerospace giant Boeing Co. announced plans to increase its engineering workforce in Long Beach and Seal Beach by 1,000 positions. It is a rare and welcome development for the Southland's beleaguered aerospace industry, which has been stung by layoffs and assembly line closures for decades. "I couldn't be happier for the region," Long Beach Mayor Bob Foster said. "We want to continue to carry on our aviation tradition here.

Setting the stage for a shake-up in city politics, a councilman and a real estate investor held off heavily favored Assemblywoman Bonnie Lowenthal in Long Beach's mayoral election and will meet in a June runoff. Unofficial tallies in Tuesday's vote showed Councilman Robert Garcia leading the pack with 25.4% of the vote, and former NFL player and real estate investor Damon Dunn close behind with 22.3%. Lowenthal, a political heavyweight in the port city, garnered 19.6%. It marked the first time in her lengthy career that she lost an election day contest.

Voters in Long Beach went to the polls Tuesday to cast ballots for a new mayor, city attorney and most of the City Council, setting the stage for a potential shake-up in city politics. The mayor's race has attracted much of the attention and much of the campaign money with a field of candidates that includes both political heavyweights and city insiders. If no candidate receives more than 50% of the vote, the top two vote-getters will meet in a June 3 runoff. After outgoing Mayor Bob Foster announced last year that he would not seek a third term, the race was thrown wide open, attracting contenders such as Assemblywoman Bonnie Lowenthal, Council members Robert Garcia and Gerrie Schipske, former NFL player and real estate investor Damon Dunn and Long Beach City College Trustee Doug Otto.

After years of contentious debate, a long-running and sharply criticized plan to extend Orange County's toll road network to the San Diego County line has been shelved. The extension would have added miles to the county's maze of tollways but also would have cut - in the view of some - perilously close to San Onofre State Beach and one of the state's most treasured surf breaks. On Tuesday, officials with the Transportation Corridor Agencies announced they had canceled environmental studies for the massive 241 extension and said they would pursue less-ambitious alternatives.

Boeing Co. announced plans to stop production of C-17 cargo jets at the company's sprawling Long Beach plant three months earlier than it previously anticipated. The aerospace giant said Monday it will shutter the 1.1-million-square-foot facility in mid-2015 due to “current market trends and the timing of expected orders.” The plane maker had initially said that production would come to an end in late 2015. The company said it expects to record $50 million in accounting charges in the first quarter as a result of Monday's announcement.